they are kicking some very sensitive issues down the road over the next few months. the republicans are happy about that, because they think they have some excellent leverage coming up in february and march when they have to pass legislation, raising the nation's debt ceiling and they think that will be enormous pressure that they will have on the president. once again, just as they did this summer of 2011, to get what they want as far as taxes, spending cuts are concerned. so they -- the kicking the can down the road, to a certain degree, if you don't deal with raising the debt limit right now, that's going to be good for the republicans, going to have a little more leverage down the road. but they're not getting that full picture deal that so many people were looking forward to. they only had a year and a half to do it, joe. they waited until after the election these last few weeks, obviously. couldn't do it. trying to run out the clock. >> all of this really started even before august of 2011. that was when we first started talking about the debt ceiling as a real